A New Era- Part Five
by Saint
Summary: X-Man against X-man in the fifth part of the adventure. Look for an awesome fight and some hints as to the truth behind the mysterious mutant


Up to part five and I've only been at this for three days. My mind is working overtime. I don't know how I'm getting all these ideas to flow so quickly but they're coming. I just hope you guys are enjoying yourselves. PLEASE Read and Review. Let me know what your favorite part is and who or what you think that this strange mutant is!   
  
  
  
(Scott)  
  
Everyone was in uniform and getting ready in their own ways for combat as the Blackbird soared well above normal plane heights to Washington D.C. to intercept this mutant. There were reports all over the police radio of him showing up, in the Senate building, near the White House, up and down embassy row. It was like he was touring Washington or something.   
  
I looked around at my team. Bobby, Iceman, was trying to relax and chat casually with Hank who was trying to ignore him and finish some book he was reading. Storm and Bishop were flying the plane in silence, Piotr had finally found himself able to armor up again and was listening to Wolverine talk about the last encounter. Rogue was looking over the videos of the last assault in the back of the plane. I had left Warren and Remy back at the Mansion to tend to Jean and to keep them from any more harm.  
  
"So he's killable, I think," Logan said confidently to Piotr. "If I can hurt him, I can kill him."  
  
Piotr seemed unimpressed. "But you surprised him comrade. You should not be so confident. He has great powers that we do not understand."  
  
Wolverine still wouldn't shut up about it. Finally I think Hank got sick of the noise.  
  
"Logan, friend, listen," he said suddenly making blue fur seem very intelligent. "This mutant was able to turn back time before, he apparently beat Jean mentally, he beat Piotr, who is known as *Colossus, in body and he caused Remy's own cards to explode in his hands. My friend," he continued calmly, "you mustn't brag about surprising the fellow."  
  
I had to smile. Very few people could effectively put Logan in his place like that and leave him without much to say, but Hank knew how to talk. Logan just shut up and sat there, popping his claws in and out.  
  
"Ten minutes ETA," Bishop said from the front of the plane. "Last report he was out near the all the monuments."  
  
"Get ready people," I said in my commanding voice. "It's time to find out what this guy is all about. Remember," I yelled to make sure they got the picture. "Remember, do not engage him unless I give the command, no matter what. Got me Logan?"  
  
Logan grunted an affirmative. That was all I needed. He had heard me.   
  
"Prepare for final descent."   
  
  
(Logan)  
  
We got off the cloaked Blackbird while it hovered near the edge of the Potomac River. Thing smelled damn terrible.   
  
"Sewage treatment plant up the river a little ways," I told Bishop. "This place reaks of garbage."  
  
"That's not sewage, it's the Senate," Bobby joked. He's a good kid, almost would be funny if he wasn't so happy all the time.   
  
We headed out along the banks of the Potomac and slowly made our way around a bend. A little ways in the distance we saw and flash of light the team all tensed up.   
  
"That's where we're headed people." Scott said smugly.   
  
Between Storm and Iceman carrying us we made our way towards the flash of light across the water in no time. We found ourselves sitting in front of the Lincoln memorial. It was oddly quiet. The place smelled of people all around but it seemed like everyone had left.   
  
Then a smell hit my nose that instinctively made my claws shoot from their sockets. It was the mutant. I could smell him near.   
  
"He here," I said to the silently moving team. "I can smell 'im."  
  
Again, Scott ordered us around and we split up to find this guy. I had the rusky wit' me.   
  
"Come on Piotr," I said confidently. "I can smell this fella. I know where da' boy is hiding."   
  
"Remember," I heard Scott say in the com. "Do not engage. Find him, alert us, and wait for orders."   
  
I hate it when he pulls this stuff. If old Charlie hadn't put him in charge I swear I woulda' cut the boy to shreads by now. He was really grating my nerves."  
  
Piotr and I headed into the main chamber where the huge statue of Lincoln was. He was an ugly fella for a President. The scent of this guy was strong here. He was close, really, really close.   
  
I gave Piotr the signal to be silent with my hands and then moved up to the front of the statue to sniff some more for the kid. I didn't care what Scott or Hank said. This kid was killable, and he hurt Jeanie. I was going to take care of business if I found the ba***** first.  
  
I came around the corner of the statue and found the boy sitting there, looking up like he had been waiting for me to come around the corner. Instinctively my claws popped out and I growled. He was going down.   
  
Just as I started to jump in his direction what felt like a steel hammer pounded into the back of my head, sending me sprawling onto the floor. When I got up the kid was gone and Colossus was coming at me, his fist covered in the blood that was dripping from the back of my head. He had hit me hard.  
  
"Piotr," I growled as I dodged another punch. "It's Logan damnit!"   
  
"The mutant has him under his control or something." I thought to myself. I had to fight back or else I was going to get really hurt by this guy. "I'm strong but I'm not 500 pounds of organic steel."   
  
Next time Piotr swung his fist I dodged inside of the swing and jump kicked the tank of a man right in the face. He didn't even flinch. He just kept coming.   
  
"Logan!" I heard Scott in my com. "What the hell is happening?"  
  
(Colossus)  
  
I had no idea why Logan had suddenly turned on me but there we were in the middle of a fight. We were coming around the corner of the statue when suddenly Logan growled, popped out his claws and took a swing at me. I reacted and swung back. He went flying across the room.   
  
"Wolverine, comrade" I called to him. "It is only me, Colossus."   
  
He kept coming. The mutant must have turned him against me somehow. He was going crazy, growling and swinging his claws like mad. I had to fight back before he cut my steel to pieces. I was strong, but if I did not defend myself that adamantium in his claws could have cut my steel to pieces.   
  
I landed another punch and sent him flying again across the room, this time into the statue of Lincoln...  
  
(Bobby/Iceman)  
  
I heard lots of commotion around the corner in the main chamber of the monument so I grabbed Rogue and headed in that direction. As we came around the corner I saw something that confused me to no end. There was no mysterious mutant there, only Logan and Colossus duking it out and yelling at each other.   
  
"Sugah, we betta break this up," Rogue said to me as she started flying towards Piotr.   
  
I jumped towards Logan to help break it up and got to him just in time to keep him from sending one of Piotr's arms off his body and into the Potomac. He growled and kicked back at me. I hit the floor and before I could get up he was coming straight for me.   
  
(Logan)  
  
There was a rage burning in me worse than the last time Sabretooth and I had met. I had totally forgotten why I was there. All I could think about was tearing the big dumb Russian to shreads. I wanted to take apart the tin-man one lib at a time.   
  
We had been going at for at least a minute or two when I saw my opening. He raised his hand to nail me and lifted it too high, exposing his shoulder. My right claw lashed out to take the freakin' arm off when suddenly Bobby nailed me in the head.   
  
I freaked. I totally forgot the Russian and turned my anger on Iceman. All I could think was hate. All I wanted was for him to die. I hadn't felt this way since I came to Chuck's outfit, but I felt it now and I turned it all on the kid. He was going to pay for that cheap shot.  
  
(Scott)  
  
Bishop and I finished making my way around the perimeter and met up with Storm and Beast. Nobody had seen anything. A little discouraged I asked if anyone had seen a flash of light.   
  
"There has been no strange energy displacements in the area," Bishop said to me. "I could have felt them. He's either left by flying or walking or he's still here."   
  
"Check with the other two teams," Hank said.   
  
I touched my com and started to speak but once I had all I could hear was grunting and loud thuds and cracks.   
  
"Damnit Logan," I said quietly. "Comon, they've found him and they're in combat."  
  
We made our way around the building and the whole time I was thinking about what I was going to do with Logan after all this was over. He broke orders again and started another fight.   
  
When I came around the corner I froze. My own team was fighting there in front of Lincoln. Bobby and Logan were screaming as they fought relentlessly and pieces of ice and bits of blood were flying everywhere. Rogue and Colossus were just hammering each other with punches that sent thudding sounds echoing all around the room. How did my own team end up fighting each other?  
  
  
(Colossus)  
  
She had surprised me while I was fighting with Wolverine in the main chamber. Somehow Logan fell away from me and before I could find him I got knocked back onto my side by a punch from someone quite a bit stronger than my hairy comrade.   
  
I looked around as I got up and saw that Rogue had been the one who had hit me. I am not usually an angry person but somehow I got so angry that I wanted to pound her, as Bobby would say, pound her senseless.   
  
I jumped to my feet and dashed in her direction and we clashed. My fist landed first and her head kicked back. I watched the blood shoot from her lips and somehow it urged me to hit her harder. She was going to die at my hands.   
  
She came back from the punch with surprising speed. I felt my leg get kicked out from under me and once again I found myself on my back. Cursing in Russian I kicked her out of the air from the ground where I lay and got myself up again. I reached down before she was able to get up and grabbed her leg. I spun her around and heaved her at the stone walls of the monument. The sound of her crushing the stones and falling to the ground was invigorating. I wanted more.   
  
(Rogue)  
  
"The jerk had betta' be sayin' his prayers," I thought to myself in anger. I got up off the ground and glanced back up at the hole in wall where I had just landed. It only made me angrier to think that my body had made the hole there. Nothing seemed to be important except nailing this big oaf. He was gonna pay for that last hit.  
  
I flew straight at him and screamed as I used my body to pound into his steel chest, sending him stumbling backwards. He replied with a back-fist to my face. That hurt. I was bleeding from the cuts in my mouth and a new cut in my forehead form that last blow. For an instant I noticed that more X-Men had come around the corner and were seeing what was going on but in another half second I forgot about them and I was back to fighting Piotr.  
  
Soon we were just standing there, exchanging blows and dancing about. This boy was gonna get a good old fashioned country butt-kickin'.   
  
(Bishop)  
  
I started to rush into the fold. They were going to kill each other if we didn't break it up.  
  
"Stop!" Cyclops commanded quickly. "Stay back. We don't know what's going on here"  
  
Seeing the logic in his command I held back. It seemed terrible to let our teammates assault each other like they were but I knew that if Cyclops said to stop, that I needed to listen. I'm used to taking commands and Scott Summers is one of the few men I didn't think twice about obeying. He was one of the great heroes of the battles to come in my future after all. We all but worshipped him as warrior children in the future.   
  
I stood watching them fight and listening to Cyclops and Storm deliberate how to break them up. Suddenly I felt a slight shift in the energy fields around me. I absorbed a little energy that was new to me and pin-pointed where it was coming from.   
  
I fired in the direction of the energy ripple, scaring Cyclops, Storm and Beast almost to death as I did, and watched as a startled young mutant suddenly became visible and fell to the ground. It was the young man we had come to find.   
  
He scrambled to his feet and looked over to the fighting. Immediately it stopped and our teammates looked around like they were waking up from a dream. Beast stormed after the young mutant in an attempt to get to him before he could vanish again.   
  
"Hank!" We all yelled in unison. It was too late however. He had leapt into the air and when he got above the young mutant he was met with a punch that could have sent him all the way back to New York, if he hadn't hit the wall.   
  
We all heard a snapping noise and froze where we stood. Hank fell to the ground limp and somehow we all knew he was dead. Everyone stood there in silence, hoping that he would get up but somehow knowing that he never would. Then we all looked back at the young mutant.   
  
He looked... he looked concerned almost. Like a little child that had killed a bug and wished he hadn't. I felt the air around me bend and ripple. I recognized it as the feeling that Bobby had described when he and Storm had first encountered the mutant. Feeling nauseated like I never had I looked back towards Hank. Things seemed to freeze in time for an instant and suddenly Hank's body raised up off the floor and headed back towards the wall.  
  
It was like everything was in super-slow rewind on those movies that Bobby always asks me to watch with him. Hank hit the wall again and we watched as all the pieces of the wall that had fallen away when the wall buckled from impact come back together and then Hank started to fly back towards the mutant.   
  
Once Hank touched the area where he had been hit he came back into his jumping position and started to move backwards. Then suddenly with a flash of light the mutant disappeared and everything returned to normal.   
  
We all stood there where we were and looked around at each other. The four who had been fighting each other didn't even rub their wounds. We all just looked around. This mutant, friend, foe or otherwise was something more powerful than we had ever expected.   
  
(Remy)  
  
It was my turn watching Jean while the team was out looking for our mutant friend. It was a horribly boring assignment. She had not moved at all since they had carried her in the other night.   
  
I looked down at my hand and cussed again in French. I could not believe I had gotten so torn up.   
  
"Sleep well cher," I said to Jean, "but not for much longer. You're man, E's worried 'bout you."  
  
It had been an hour since we last heard from the team. They were just setting down over the Potomac with promises to call as soon as they discovered something. After an hour I had stopped waiting for a call and decided to turn on some TV. There had to be something decent on.  
  
Just as I reached for the remote for the TV in the med lab I was startled by a scream from Jean. I turned around scared but excited that she was waking up.   
  
"Scott!" she yelled. "Stop Scott, I know!"   
  
I grabbed her at her shoulders and settled her.   
  
"What cher? What do ya' know?"   
  
She replied looking scared, happy and confused all at once. "The mutant! I know! I know what is happening!"  
  
  
  
That's all for now. Check back next time and look for what's really going down. Jean has some secrets to reveal to the team and some more action ensues. It's coming soon... oh yeah! And let me know what you guys think! I want Reviews!!!   
  
P.S.-who or what do you think the mutant is? Let's see who can get it right. I know what's gonna happen. Do any of you?  



End file.
